Thoughts

04

On the 22nd and 23rd Jan I attended a conference at the BFI on community filmmaking, part of a research study aiming to contribute to the debate around community filmmaking and cultural diversity by exploring how cultural diversity intersects with community filmmaking and the results of this intersection in terms of representations and identities as well as practices and innovation. The research is being undertaken by Brunel University, Kings College London and the University of London. It has been funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council. The website for the project is here.

It was intense few days, and for me, interesting, looking at filmmaking practice from a more academic perspective. There were a lot of great speakers and debates and I think the best way to represent them here is for me to note some of the stand out ones that relate to Re-Dock and our work practice.

Taking time out to listen and think about community filmmaking practice in relation to filmmaking and the standard norms and expectations that this brings, was a really useful thing to do. In general, I do what I do, because its enjoyable, fun, creative, collaborative and facilitates learning and sharing. The process of community filmmaking for me is about finding an approach that works in relation to the subject matter. Collaborating on a variety of community stories, facilitates a certain amount of experimentation, which may or may not work, but has the chance to touch upon a spark of something unique, and there’s often a sense of freedom and energy that comes with that. This often conflicts with the standard filmmaking practices, but I don’t think these processes should be any less celebrated.

This thought process featured in many of the presentations, such as from Daniel Ashton who focused on diverse ways of storytelling, using the BBC’s ‘Britain in a Day‘ which offered possibilities of sharing, but not in terms of production expectation, using online tutorials to encourage people to follow established practices, highlighting a tension between the filmmakers and the editor. Where as, the ability the peruse different aesthetics should be celebrated.

David Buckingham, (Loughborough University) put forward an argument that questioned the media revolution, saying that actually what was happening was rather more mundane, asking questions such as who is participating? Is it just the usual suspects? And are there any digital divides? He suggested that everyday users tend to be ignored and that we should defend banality.

He also looked at community media in a broader context, looking at the overlaps between amateur professional community, semi professional and professional filmmaking.

Eileen Leahy (Trinity College,Dublin)
Looked at positives and negatives of community filmmaking and how although having positive aims, often causes of inequality are not addressed and social inclusion terms are ill defined and that films are often made looking through a middle class lense. However, there are some benefits, such as allowing commutes to reclaim physical spaces, bringing different people and communities together, and empowering people through sharing stories and looking at the world in a different way.

Elieen also raised Questions of authorship – films are made in complex ways ad who owns it when it is finished? The community rarely own the film or have a say in how it’s made. It’s the issue of power for community groups to own the films they produce, even if they are not bothered particularly about the end result.

Thinking back, I’ve seen community film projects that have (with all good intentions) been developed by committee, with the end result being worthy and failing to do justice to the subject matter. It’s always a balance, but if you think about something too much, you can always think of a reason not to do it, and in this line of work, there’s a lot to be said for spontaneity and surprise and we shouldn’t loose sight of that. I think the lessons to be learnt here are that many of these arguments are just part of the process of filmmaking and that our approach at Re-Dock should always to keep respect at the forefront of our work.

22

As part of the PORTAL project, we’ve been working with Tenantspin to deliver workshops supporting sheltered housing residents in using iPads. Our approach to this has been to frame the device as the latest step in a series of technological innovations experienced in the life-times of the residents. We have also been discussing possibilities of telepresence, and the ideas expressed through science fiction literature and film, to question to what extent these devices are now present in our everyday lives.

This week we looked at using the video camera function of the iPad, with a view to recording video messages.

02

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Re-Dock intern, (and now librarian – edited 2014) Becky Mulvaney discusses the her research through own relationship to libraries, developed early on thanks to her Grandmother’s weekly trips. Read more…

22

My name is Becky, we may have met. I was introduced to Re-Dock through a two week internship during the Summer of 2011, organised through the University of Liverpool, where I am currently studying English. My passions can be surmised as; comics, children’s literature and folk tales, cross stitching cartoon characters, writing bad poetry and baking cakes without wheat in them. I also nurture an obsession with zombies, taxidermy and an increasing interest in how/what/why people communicate with each other.

31

We recently staged a very special audiovisual event at St Helens Central Library as part of the ongoing Library of Dreams project. The show, entitled Music For Sleeping, featured animations, videos, sounds and spoken word recordings created by the public through a series of digital arts workshops at the library. The final presentation was a half hour long, surround sound journey with the audience laid on their backs on comfy mats, whilst watching the projections on the ceiling overhead.

23

At the last outing for a small cinema, there was a lovely selection of short films, one in particular Luminaris, got me thinking about trying some stop motion, which I’ve never really done seriously, just tinkered with. This film inspired me to look at it from the perspective of travelling light, so I’ve been waiting for the right conditions and building up a small collection of footage. I’ve posted a short sample below.

I’m not quite sure where this will go, but it’s made me think about our work practice in a slightly different context relating to time, as in, without enough of it, you’re in trouble.

Independently, I’m often working on something that has little time for research and development, just a relatively quick output is required. I think what we try to do with Re-Dock is really have the time to do justice to a project, as well as thinking about it long term. There’s lot’s of examples, now I come to think of them, a small cinema, the Open Source Swan Pedalo, Funstella’s, Project Triangle, Mapping & Memory. They’re all still out there even after any initial funding has finished. We’re often asking ourselves, ‘is this a Re-Dock project?’ and this can often be decided on available time.

It’s also worth mentioning that making Re-Dock as ‘organisation free’ as possible gives us greater choice and control. We don’t have to take on projects just to sustain ourselves, but we do need time to invest our ideas into what we want Re-Dock to be and how to get there. It’s a difficult balance – but sharing ideas and supporting each other is at the crux of this, and that’s something I feel we’re getting right.

27

Although our Mapping and Memory project has close, we’ve kept in contact with some of the participants, particularly the group known as the ‘Retired Merchant Seafarers’. It turns out that the group used to run a website www.liverpoolsailorsandships.com where they had collected lots of stories and photographs and quite a large following. But, as happens, the running and maintanence of the site became quite a bit of work, coupled with increased hosting costs, this led to the site not rewnewed and the name has since been purchased by a holding company. All the data that was on the site is on a hard drive in someone’s shed – some has been lost. Read more…

27

2011 has been an incredibly busy year for Re-Dock, and we’re only just getting the chance to take stock and reflect on the work we’ve developed. One of the biggest projects we’ve ever undertaken was completed in September this year – the Mapping Memory project. I’m going to briefly talk about the two major outputs – the 1950′s Google Map, and the 40 minute documentary.

03

Its been over a year since we started work on the Mapping Memory project, investigating peoples’ experiences of Liverpool in the 1950′s 60′s and 70′s. We were given a new perspective on our work by John Quirk, a former electrical engineer and avid kite photographer.